Routines

I have had lots of routines in my life, some good and some not so good. One routine that I am currently trying to break is my focus on food. Now, that doesn't mean I'm going to eat whatever I want. However, I am trying to eat lower carb and sugar with minimal dairy and gluten because I seem to have reactions to these items. I came to the conclusion last week that I am tired of worrying about every bit of food that goes in my mouth. I have eaten a certain way for over half my life and I'm not finding it easy to change that. So, my desire to eat keto - which means limiting carbs to 20-30 grams daily - is not going to happen at this time. I found a more moderate limit of 70 when reviewing a way of eating lower carb and I know I can do that! So, I will start a new routine of counting carbs in order to reach a goal of better health.

Another routine that I am working on is getting in some exercise at least 5 days each week. MWF is weight-lifting mornings at the gym with my husband. I also get on the treadmill and either walk or jog for a minimum of 2 miles. TTh is swim days at the community center. I am in awe of how fit I was when I was swimming competitively over 30 years ago! I love swimming, but it is a difficult sport to take on when working on stamina because it uses the entire body and so one gets tired quickly! I'm curious to see where I am at with it next May when my yearly membership is up for renewal. My goal is to be able to swim laps for 30 minutes straight without stopping. Right now, I can only do 6 laps or about 3-4 minutes and then I have to stop and rest a smidge before beginning more laps.

I finished a crochet mandala yesterday. I will weave in the ends today and get it ready to send as a surprise to someone who admired another mandala I made earlier this summer. I hope they like it! It is called Lucienne's Summer Mandala, but I am calling my version the Summer into Fall Mandala.

My cleaning routine is working much better for me now that I have assigned certain tasks to each day of the week. It feels better to me to clean a little every day instead of all of it in one day. I know that doesn't work for everyone, but it works for me! Some days I do not feel like cleaning and so I just move the task to the next day. As long as it gets done, I'm not going to stress about it too much!

I have several other routines that I want to incorporate into my day and I will try and tackle those over the next few months - these include (1) dry brushing the skin which I understand to be very good for keeping the lymphatic system working well, (2) learning yoga so I can become stronger and more flexible and (3) learning how to embroider. I have lots of patterns, books and thread so just need to buy some fabric and get crackin'!